Published 7:00 pm, Friday, January 31, 2003

James Thomas added 13 points and 16 rebounds for the Longhorns (14-3, 5-1 Big 12), who remained unbeaten at home this season.

Oklahoma State (17-2, 6-1) lost for the first time in two months. Victor Williams scored 22 points for the Cowboys, who also got 15 from Tony Allen.

The loss dropped the Cowboys out of sole possession of first place in the conference. Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State all have one Big 12 loss.

The victory also was a measure of revenge for Texas, which had to watch Cowboys players carry coach Eddie Sutton off the Longhorns' home court last season when Sutton earned his 700th career victory.

Saturday's game was Sutton's 999th in the coach's box _ fourth among active coaches _ but this one wasn't nearly as sweet for his Cowboys.

Texas shot 51 percent from the floor and outrebounded Oklahoma State 41-28 in snuffing out the nation's longest winning streak.

Before the game, the Erwin Center crowd of 14,804 observed a moment of silence for the loss of the space shuttle Columbia and its crew over Texas skies earlier in the day. After the national anthem, a student spirit group unfurled a large Texas Lone Star flag on the court.

Texas led 38-36 after a first half in which both teams shot better than 50 percent, neither led by more than five and the normally reserved Longhorns fans were on their feet.

Texas opened the second half with a 10-2 run as the Cowboys suddenly went cold, missing their first five shots. Ivey finished a fastbreak with a running bank shot and Ford capped the spurt with an incredible, twisting fall-away jumper to his left that made it 48-38.

The Cowboys started getting into foul trouble as starters Allen and Melvin Sanders both had four fouls with more than 15 minutes left.

Texas bumped the lead as high as 63-48 with 7:29 to play behind Brian Boddicker's shot clock-beating 3-pointer and Ford's short jumper. At that point, the Cowboys were just 3-of-15 shooting in the second half.

Ford hit a 3-pointer that bounced twice on the rim and backboard before falling in to put Texas up 68-54.

The Cowboys cut it to 69-63 with a 9-1 run capped by Allen's three-point play with 1:20 left. Williams stripped Ford at midcourt and Ford fouled Allen on the layup.

Now Playing:

But that was as close as it got as Texas hit nine free throws down the stretch to seal the win.